unh-ed604 - Standardized Testing

Standardized testing is a method of assessment utilizing tests that are designed by recognized experts and administered in a variety of schools and classrooms (Ormrod, 2011). A test is considered standardized when certain criteria are consistent for all test takers, including the content and questions on the exam, the environmental conditions under which the exam is administered, and the method and procedure for scoring the exam. The tests themselves are evaluated according to their degrees of reliability and validity since no test can be perfectly reliable or valid (Ormrod, 2011). Nonetheless, approved standardized tests are considered useful tools to measure and compare students' general knowledge and ability levels.

While standardized tests often consist of multiple-choice and/or true-or-false questions that can be computer scored, they may also incorporate or be entirely comprised of short-answer and/or essay questions. Answers to such questions must be human scored, creating the potential for significant variability in score results.

Standardized test scores are either norm-referenced or criterion-referenced. The former method of interpretation compares the test taker’s results to a sample of peers’ results, providing an individual’s relative ranking (often expressed as one’s placement within a percentile range of peer performance). Examples of norm-referenced tests include the SAT and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). By contrast, a criterion-referenced test compares an individual’s results to a predetermined “criterion,” with the goal being to assess the test taker’s knowledge of a particular domain of subject matter. Criterion-referenced tests often feature a cutscore, establishing a minimum score to “pass” the test. Most state-administered achievement tests are criterion-referenced.

Historians have found evidence of standardized testing dating back to 7th-century China. In the United States, education reformer Horace Mann began calling for standardized assessments in the mid-1800s. However, standardized tests did not become widespread until the 20th century, following such key developments as the founding of the College Entrance Examination Board (now the College Board) in 1900, the invention of the multiple-choice test by Frederick J. Kelly in 1914, and the creation of the first automatic test scanner, the IBM 805, in 1936.

In recent decades, the use of standardized testing in U.S. public education has grown markedly. The 1983 publication of A Nation at Risk, a report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, spurred a still ongoing standards-based education reform movement that relies heavily on testing. Notably, Congress’s passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) mandated standardized testing in all public schools across the country and tied test results to federal funding. While certain “waivers” were introduced in 2011 to relieve states of some of the act’s provisions, NCLB continues to prompt widespread criticism of high-stakes testing and standardized testing in general. However, the public debate over standardized testing in America, as well as the reauthorization of NCLB (which expired in 2007), remains unresolved.

–Larry Ransom-Wiley, page created on February 2, 2013